Fake Agency Probe: ICPC Grills Embattled DG Inside Police Cell as Reps Summon Akume, Ribadu, Others

By: Abudu Olalekan

The mess surrounding the so-called Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council took another sharp turn on Wednesday, as ICPC operatives finally sat down with the man at the centre of it all, Adeniyi Adeyemi, right inside police custody.

For anyone just tuning in, here’s the short version. Adeyemi has been parading himself as Director-General of a “presidential” body that, well, doesn’t quite exist — at least according to the very government institutions he claims sent him. Add allegations of forged papers, questionable bank accounts, and a mysterious appearance in the 2026 budget proposal, and you’ve got yourself a full-blown scandal.

But getting Adeyemi to talk wasn’t smooth sailing.

The anti-graft team showed up at the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre around 10am, ready to go. Then came the hiccup — his new lawyer was nowhere in sight. So they waited. Under Nigerian law, you can’t just grill a suspect without giving him legal cover, and the ICPC wasn’t about to trip on procedure.

A senior police source, who asked not to be named because he isn’t cleared to speak publicly, told Reportersroom the session had to be pushed to 3pm.

“The ICPC earlier today was at the Cybercrime Centre trying to interview Adeyemi around 10am, but the interview could not hold after everything had been set up because his lawyer was absent. That was why the interview was later fixed for 3pm,” the source said.

By afternoon, the lawyer showed up. Questioning began — but didn’t wrap up.

“His lawyer eventually came and he was interrogated in his presence. They couldn’t finish the questioning today, and there’s the possibility of continuing another day, probably tomorrow,” another source added.

Gbajabiamila’s Name in the Mix
Here’s where things get spicier. On Monday, the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila himself, walked into the ICPC headquarters in Abuja. Yes, that Gbajabiamila.

Adeyemi, arrested last week, had claimed Gbajabiamila handed him the appointment letter for the DG role — and that he paid the Chief of Staff to lock down the job. Bold accusation.

Gbajabiamila is having none of it. He’s denied everything, slammed Adeyemi with a lawsuit, and the Presidency has flatly stated the council doesn’t exist.

His lawyer, Jiti Ogunye, confirmed the ICPC visit in a written statement:

“In full cooperation with the ICPC acting as directed by the President of Nigeria, I hereby confirm that my client, Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff to the President of Nigeria, responded to the invitation of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission and appeared at about 15:00hrs on Monday, July 20, 2026, as part of the ongoing investigation into the activities of the ‘PFIPC’ fake agency, among others. My client gave his testimony, responded to questions accordingly, and has returned to his duty post.”

President Bola Tinubu had, back on July 7, ordered the ICPC to dig into the whole thing and hand in a report within 30 days. That directive came through his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.

The probe covers forged appointment letters, fake government documents, Adeyemi’s claim to be a presidential appointee, his alleged pursuit of visa help and diplomatic recognition, plus a handful of bank accounts reportedly opened in the names of made-up agencies.

Reps Ready to Question Heavyweights

The House of Representatives isn’t sitting this one out either. Its Ad-hoc Committee, led by Plateau lawmaker Yusuf Gagdi, is calling in some very senior figures today.

The list is long — and telling. SGF George Akume. NSA Nuhu Ribadu. Attorney-General Lateef Fagbemi (SAN). IGP Olatunji Disu. Accountant-General Shamseldeen Ogunjimi. Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele. Foreign Affairs Minister Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu. Budget Office DG Tanimu Yakubu. NIPC’s Aisha Rimi. Plus officials from the NEC Secretariat, RMAFC and the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission.

Everyone’s expected to explain, plainly, how the PFIPC ended up in the 2026 budget estimates Tinubu himself presented to the National Assembly. And how on earth it got office accommodation.

That last bit ties back to something troubling. The Permanent Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Dunoma Ahmed, already told lawmakers his ministry wants nothing to do with this council. He said Adeyemi — introducing himself as Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi — showed up at the ministry three separate times: June 26, 2025; August 5, 2025; and June 5, 2026. Each visit, he pitched himself as DG of both the Presidential Economic Advisory Council and the PFIPC. He wanted the ministry to co-organise a World Investment Summit.

The ministry said no. Something didn’t add up.

Ahmed said they eventually wrote the Office of the NSA on October 16, 2025, asking who this man really was. The reply came November 26 — nobody in the SGF’s office or the Chief of Staff’s office had ever heard of him.

Ahmed was firm: no diplomatic engagements, no MOUs, no treaties, no missions abroad instructed to recognise the council. Nothing.

The committee also told the IGP to bring forward two suspects picked up over documents allegedly lifted from the Office of the Head of the Civil Service — papers that supposedly cleared the council to join the federal budget process and even greenlit the deployment of about 300 personnel. Three hundred. Let that sit for a second.

Akume, meanwhile, has questions of his own to answer — mainly about how office space in Phase III of the Federal Secretariat, originally assigned to his own office in 2023, somehow ended up in the hands of the PFIPC.

Gagdi wasn’t pleased on Tuesday. Several invited officials didn’t show, and he warned that the committee wouldn’t hesitate to use its constitutional powers to force them in.

Atiku Wades In

And of course, the politics couldn’t stay out of it forever.

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has now turned up the heat, blasting the Tinubu administration for what he called a failure to give straight answers. His main gripe? The Accountant-General’s office and the Central Bank of Nigeria are telling two completely different stories about the PFIPC accounts.

In a statement through his aide Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said Tinubu must either order an independent probe or own the mess himself.

“This is where the cover-up appears to begin,” he said. “One institution denied authorising the opening of the PFIPC accounts and alleged forgery. Another, before the representatives of the Nigerian people, stated that the accounts were opened on the directive of the Accountant-General after due process was followed. Both accounts cannot be true.”

He didn’t stop there.

“When two of your most sensitive financial and monetary authorities publicly contradict each other on the same transaction, no serious leader needs a clairvoyant to know that his administration is trapped in a web of deception and a profound crisis of credibility. The President cannot continue to watch from the sidelines while his government tears itself apart with conflicting narratives.”

Atiku threw down a direct challenge: “President Tinubu must answer a simple question: which version does he believe — the Accountant-General’s or the Central Bank’s? If he believes neither, why has he not acted?”

He also had sharp words for the silence of the Attorney-General, saying it’s only fuelling public suspicion. He wants the National Assembly to bring both the Accountant-General and the CBN Governor before its committee, side by side, to sort out the contradictions once and for all.

“The PFIPC scandal has ceased to be merely about disputed accounts,” Atiku said. “It has become a referendum on President Tinubu’s integrity and competence.”

And then, the kicker: “President Tinubu owes Nigerians an unreserved apology for presiding over this unprecedented collapse of public accountability. If he cannot immediately restore public confidence through a genuinely independent investigation and ensure that everyone responsible is held to account, then he has forfeited the moral authority to continue in office. The honourable course is simple: apologise to Nigerians and resign.”

Strong words. Whether Tinubu bites is a different matter altogether.

For now, one thing is clear — the PFIPC story is far from over.